Meadows Blisters Rockies Despite Injury

August 8, 1999|By DAVID O'BRIEN Staff Writer

The last time the skin peeled away from his blistered right middle finger, the bottom fell out on pitcher Brian Meadows' performance.

But on Saturday night, Meadows ignored the stinging in his finger and inflicted some pain on lifeless Colorado in a 4-1 victory at Pro Player Stadium, allowing one run and seven hits with no walks in seven innings.

Luis Castillo had his third consecutive three-hit game, Kevin Millar homered and Antonio Alfonseca got his career-high ninth save as the Marlins moved into position to sweep the Rockies this afternoon.

"I just told myself: got to bear down hard and keep my pitches down," said Meadows, who left pitches up in the zone and allowed seven runs and nine hits in 22/3 innings July 29.

Skipping a start didn't have the desired effect of toughening the skin on Meadows' finger, but he got the pitching results the Marlins wanted. For a second consecutive night, the aggressive Rockies didn't draw a walk.

"He gets the red badge of courage tonight," manager John Boles said of Meadows, who lost the layer of the synthetic Toughskin that was applied to the finger before the game began. "[Then] he tore off another layer of new skin. I don't know if he'll have to miss another start.

"It was hurting him from the beginning. He might not tell you, because he doesn't want to miss a start. But it was nasty."

Meadows (9-11) had a bare quarter-inch circle on the finger afterward, but as Boles predicted, he downplayed the problem, saying: "It was a little tender warming up, but once I started throwing it was fine."

The same couldn't be said for shortstop Alex Gonzalez's sore left knee, which caused him to miss the previous three games. The slumping rookie was back in the lineup Saturday, but Boles took him out in the sixth inning after he failed to get to a Dante Bichette single up the middle.

"That's [usually] an easy play for him, and he was limping," Boles said. "It looks like he's going to need a little more time. That was a red flag."

Meadows was protecting a 3-1 lead when Bichette reached base with one out, and he retired the next two Rockies. In the seventh, the Rockies had runners at first and second with none out before Terry Shumpert hit into a double play and Neifi Perez grounded out against Meadows.

Castillo led off the first inning with a double against left-hander Brian Bohanon (10-9) and scored from second base on Bruce Aven's single to the weak-armed Bichette in left field. The Marlins added all the runs they needed on Millar's two-run homer in the fourth.

Millar is 9 for 16 (.563) with five RBI in five games against the Rockies and 5 for 6 with a home run and five RBI against Bohanon. Castillo is 9 for 18 with four RBI in four games against Colorado.

Meadow also benefited from some exceptional defensive plays, including a spectacular diving catch by Preston Wilson that saved two runs in the second inning and a sliding catch by Mark Kotsay to end the eighth.

After totaling seven home runs in their first 22 games after the All-Star break, the Marlins have four in the first two games of the series against Colorado. The Rockies (48-62) have a $58 million payroll that's nearly quadruple the Marlins, yet have only five more wins than the Marlins.